Il treno nella neve

Monet painted this in the winter of 1875, at the railway station in Argenteuil, the town just outside Paris where he was then living. A locomotive comes toward you through the snow, its two lamps lit, a low haze of steam and smoke hanging over the platform. The railway was still fairly new here, and painters of an older generation would not have thought a working engine a fit subject at all. Monet did, and he painted trains and stations more than once in these years. The snow lets him do what he liked best, catching the greys and off-whites of a cold, damp day rather than any bright drama.